Thursday, May 29, 2014

This will be my one post about Elliot Rodger. I refuse to react or respond to a media that has such a patently blatant leftist agenda that you can no longer call them media or journalists, but rather what they are - liars and propagandists.

If you are intellectually honest
And if you wish to look at the words, behaviors and actions of Elliot Rodger
He is by all means, measures and metrics acting like

Roosh has done an outstanding job of pointing out just how identical Rodger's actions and words were to that espoused by feminism and socialism that I see no reason to add anything. I will however address another angle in my podcast, but it will be tangential to this issue.

Stepping back allows you to clear your mind, take the horse blinders off, but most importantly allows you to see the situation for what it truly is.

For example, the eternal debate of Austrian vs. Keynesian economics. The front lines of this battle are between economic intellectual giants on both sides of the debate. Krugman, Reich, Williams, Sowell, you name it, heavy hitters from prestigious institutions of government and academia tender increasingly complex and researched arguments. It's like the Battle of Somme being waged, slugging it out, with no clear winner.

But what if instead of burrowing your head further into No Man's Land you instead, pull back, hop on a plane and take a look at the debate from a completely different, simpler, and admittedly, less-intellectual perspective?

You'd soon realize the debate is about whether the government knows what's best for the economy and has the right to intervene or whether it should be left up to the people.

The answer, if you're intellectually honest, is simply clear.

Global warming is another example. The pro-global warmists will through up a chart and claim we're all going to drown in 500 days, the anti-global warmists will show new data debunking said claims and the latest global warming models. Sheeple will believe who they choose to. Whoever is right, however, if you step back and look at it with different eyes you'll realize it is much more likely this is just the latest political ruse by socialists posing as caring "environmentalists" to get more of other people's money. But you can't come to that realization if you're steeped in the religious indoctrination, or in the throes of debunking it.

So a third "Step Back" observation dawned on me and its ramifications are quite depressing. And that is:

And not just lower taxes for "the rich," but lower taxes for everyone.

Yes, duly noted, a faction within the Republican party is against abortion. Thank you leftists, we got the memo. But aside from that overly beaten accusation of a drum, their overall political product is freedom.

Now you would think, given logic and reason, the American people would in general want freedom. You would think, given the history of humans, where the vast majority of them were oppressed by the government, they would want LESS government and MORE individualism.

You would think.

The irony is, however, that it's damn well near impossible to sell freedom to the American people.

The question is why, and when you step back, clear your eyes, and think about it, the answer is quite scary.

Admittedly, part of the reason American's are so resilient to freedom is that the Republicans are the worst salesmen in the world for it. But although poor salesmanship is in part to blame, the real reason is that the American people have been brainwashed to think against their own, long term self interests.

This may sound conspiratorial, but it is not. This is only the natural consequence of a leftist political party that uses a public school system and a leftist media to convince people to;

1. Not think critically
2. Never develop the capacity for delay gratification
3. Never learn about basic personal budgeting and financial planning (you ever see this in schools?)
4. Hate and envy other, more successful groups of people, that they should be emulating instead
5. Self-rationalize why they are entitled to said successful people's lives in the form of their wealth

Of course, this scam is obvious to even the part-time observer of politics. But what is truly scary is how effective it is. It's so effective, and the people's brain's so dumbed down and impaired, they not only can't identify this ruse for what it is, they are so far gone they actively reject and vote against something as simple and good as freedom.

Naturally, I've given up and don't really care. If people are so lacking in brain power and intellectual honesty they foolishly think they can get something for nothing and that such a system is sustainable in the long run, then they don't deserve the freedoms that true intellectual giants fought wars over to ensure. The question is whether you can admit the same and realize you're dealing with insanity when people reject freedom.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Hire some kid with attitude, lip, and some worthless degree that makes them think they're smarter than they actually are AND with leftist indoctrination about privilege, entitlement, going green, etc.,

A few clicks south and about 10 more west you'll run into a town called "Maple Grove."

Well, there really isn't a town or veritable "city center" there, but that geographical location is called "Maple Grove."

Maple Grove, for the most part, is inconsequential to yours, mine, or anybody else's life. But there is an important economic lesson to pull from it that is consequential to our lives. And that lesson is what the entire American economy is slowly morphing into.

Understand that Maple Grove did not exist at all of 10 years ago. When I was in college it was where the city and suburbs ended and farmland began. But 10 years ago, overnight seemingly, it burst into a large sprawled out, multi-mega-strip mall area. It now covers about 5 times the surface area of the Mall of America, has (by my ballpark estimation) more retail space and outlets than the MOA, and if it doesn't already, it will have more restaurants than the MOA. If you name a chain restaurant, a national retailer, or any kind of American brand name, Maple Grove has it.

When this massive development first went in, my economic spidey senses tingled at the back of my mind. I couldn't understand it on several levels. One, where was the city center? Why did all these stores and retail outlets just open up in this area? Was there some center of commerce I was unaware of that economically warranted such a development? Two, who the hell would go there? It was the epitome of cookie cutter. There was not ONE unique restaurant in the entire area. Just Applebee's after Houlihans after California Pizza Kitchen, after Joe's Crab Shack. Only the most boring, SWPL, mindless suburban automotons would patronize the place, and I didn't think there was a high enough SWPL population make all those businesses financially viable. Three, by god, there was a high enough SWPL population to make it financially viable. HOW??? How could there be that many milquetoast people? There's enough flavorless people in the area to make this a go??? But the key thing that was tickling the back of my brain, but never made it to the frontal lobes until last week was;

Where is all the production? How does this purely retail economy exist? How is this supportable in the long run?

And thus the important economic lesson.

Realize that in the Maple Grove economic nothing is produced. Only consumed. There are no factories, no assemblies, no plants. It is 100% pure, cookie cutter retail. Maple Grove's "Municipal Gross Product" is 100% retail clerks, waiters, bartenders and baristas selling you things that are made outside of its city limits. It is the first entire city that is solely dependent upon retail and would not exist otherwise.

But while Maple Grove effectively only serves as a large sprawled out mall, it is a microcosm of what is in store for the American economy. A fate where we slowly switch from that of a industrial, productive economy where actual things of value are produced to one where we merely become...

one big ass mall.

Already this is happening to a certain extent globally. The West, including America, the UK, and western Europe act like the world's mega-malls. China, SE Asia, India and nearly all other 2nd world serve as our factories. And the debutantes of western society act likes spoiled suburbanite princesses, borrowing money from daddy (China and other creditors) so they can buy worthless, meaningless crap that only serves to play an unwinnable status game in the West. However, equilibrium is universal, and no unsustainable system can survive. And thus, just like Maple Grove or a suburbanite princess cannot maintain their parasitical existence without the constant supply of foreign made goods (and credit), so too will the American economy inevitably collapse.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, and maybe not even next year, but the time will come that China, Japan, the Arab nations and other creditors will realize that America is just a mall, it's people suburbanite princesses, and that we really don't produce anything of value here. Once that happens, the dollar will drop in value, nobody will lend us any more money, and unfathomable amount of economic hurt will slam into our increasingly spoiled and delusional people. Adult-children more concerned about privilege, falsely claiming PSTD, the earnings gap, or the Kardashians will be blindsided as society is no longer concerned about their petty, politically drummed up drama, but rather why there is no electricity, why gas is up to $5 a gallon, and why their bank accounts were haircutted. Their primary concern won't be whether they can live at home, but whether mom and dad can even afford food for the week. And they're going to be begging and pleading to work as a barista as Starbucks lays off 70% of its labor force because nobody can afford a $7 cup of coffee.

Of course, this is already happening to a certain extent already. Matter of fact, I'm surprised our foreign creditors hadn't dumped the US dollar sooner. But they are, and the "factory" of the world is slowly realizing the US for the financial deadbeat that it is and switching out of US dollars, increasing reserves in gold and other currencies. We are now engaging in thinly-veiled inflationary hanky-panking with our "quantitative easing" as one last final desperate ruse to make it seem like everything is normal. This is nothing more than daddy going to the bank to secure one last desperate Keynesian loan to keep his trophy wife and princess happy and spending, "hopefully turning the economy around."

But it won't work. And the reason is simple. No economy can exist purely on consumption. It needs to produce something of value. And while Keynesians, economic professors, and idiot presidents may tell you otherwise, in the end you are foolish to believe them, just as you would be foolish to believe Maple Grove is a self-sustaining economy.

Consider that next time you order the chicken quesadillas at Applebee's while celebrating a hard day of shopping for a new Korean-made smart phone and an Indonesian-made scarf in "The MG."

________________________

This post brought to you by Asshole Consulting.
"Asshole Consulting" - when you want lies, hire a regular consultant.
When you want the truth, hire an asshole.
Asshole Consulting - "The truth hurts, and we're happy when it does."

Monday, May 26, 2014

A sponsor came to me. Andro-Plus. We discussed, agreed, and now he's an official sponsor of Cappy Cap. However, it is interesting how he became a sponsor.

In addition dedicating myself to lifting, running, giving up booze, and dieting, I wanted to see what other supplements I could take to achieve my goal of look un-shirt-worthy this summer. This included Creatine, vitamins, and other supplements, but what I wanted was a testosterone supplement.

Enter the US health care industry.

I just can't buy "Andro-Gel." No, I need a prescription.

And I just can't get a prescription. No, I need to see a generalist first who will then recommend me to a specialist who will run some tests so that some day, some how, I might get a prescription.

This reminded me of when I wanted to test my potency and ensure my vasectomy had held.

No, the lab couldn't just run a test.

I would have to see a doctor first who would then authorize me to have a lab test.

In frustration and knowing where there's a will, there's a free market way, I turned to the internet where they have do it yourself lab kits to test your, ahem, virility. Sure enough, I saved myself about $400 in unnecessary health care costs, and so I thought I'd do the same with testosterone supplements.

Andro-Plus was recommended to me by Davis Aurini. I bought it for $100, took it, and knew full well I would live with the consequences if I grew a third arm, but that thankfully did not happen. I can't guarantee you that YOU won't grow a third arm, but if you're sick and tired of needing the government's and the doctor's permission to receive the medical treatments you want as a full grown adult, and would still like to at least give a testosterone supplement a try, I recommend Andro-Plus.

Continuing on in our empirical series comparing economic performance under different presidencies, we look today at economic growth. Here, even I was surprised based on the empirical data in two ways.

1. Carter had a surprisingly high average economic growth rate. Marginally higher than Reagan's (however this was due to a freakish one off event of 16.5% annualized economic growth in the 2nd quarter of 1978. The reason for it I'm still trying to peg down).

2. Bush Jr. had an even lower economic average than Obama, largely due to the walloping -8.3% contraction in late 2008.

Still, economic performance under Obama is nothing to get too excited about. At 2.1% it is on par with the two nepotist presidents democrats love to loathe, and nowhere near Clinton, Reagan or Carter (two of which were dealing with real recessions). But in all honesty and truth (because the facts don't lie) Obama is "not as bad" as Bush Jr. However, while we can debate which economy is "marginally less sucky" under the hated Obama and the hated Bush, two points of order.

One, though not economic, Obama was billed as this brilliant, intelligent, genius by the media, academia and other arms of the democrat party. However, Bush Jr received nothing but 120% the complete opposite of Obama. He was an idiot, a war monger, etc. etc. Still, the "holy and sacred" Obama could not really muster a significantly better economic performance than the loathed and galactically stupid Bush Jr. If there is a criticism most conservatives, libertarians and republicans have, it's the egregious amount of handicap, affirmative action, and lowering of the bar the media and society has granted Obama while holding Bush to abusive and impossible standards. The truth is that Obama is no better than Bush.

Two, Keynesian stimulus. Understand with the LARGEST Keynesian stimulus since WWII, Obama can still only manage to be marginally better than Bush Jr. This is like Barry Bonds taking steroids, but never hitting a home run. Matter of fact, the above chart should strike fear into Keynesian zealots as the two presidents with the most amount of textbook Keynesian stimulus have the poorest economic performances. Good lord, even Carter trounced them.

With that in mind, the next statistic we will look at will be precisely that - Keynesian stimulus in the form of deficit spending and national debt. Something I'm sure doesn't need addressing, but it will be interesting to see just how much in economic steroids different presidents have been taking.

Because technology has changed that they are now obsolete and a better, cheaper version is available.

However, something tells me, like the Post Office, we are going to be forced to slave away for unneeded, but highly unionized and politically influential obsoletes osuch as postal workers and librarians.

Graduation is coming up. You or a loved one is about to finish the 13 years of prison hell called "public school" and will shortly be on their way to the real world. However, unlike K-12 the real world will not be pampering, it will not be cushioned, and it will certainly not be free. Matter of fact it will be outright dangerous.

There are people out there who are eager and waiting to take advantage of you or your loved one. Once you/they leave their parent's home, you will have credit card companies, not to mention the trillion-dollar-per-year education industry salivating over the prospect of young, naive 18 year olds ill-prepared and ill-educated by the public school systems, to be foolish enough to part with their money. Worse, most 18 year olds technically don't even have money to part with, and will likely go into 6 figure debt to "follow their dreams," making it a near-guarantee their financial futures will be ruined, and thus their lives, ruined.

Do not ruin your life. Get two ABSOLUTELY MANDATORY BOOKS for yourself or your soon-to-be graduate.

Between the two Worthless is an absolute must for every high school graduate or prospective college student. It is short, it is cheap, and it is even in audio book format for easy consumption. If there is a graduation gift to get it is Worthless. It is the tough fatherly love adroitly and diplomatically delivered in book form about the real world realities of education, the labor market, and how to achieve financial success that you were too afraid to tell your children or read for yourself.Bachelor Pad Economics is a close second in that it goes beyond the immediate need for wisdom regarding choosing a major, and provides a financial road map for all young people, guiding them from the age of 14 to death in all of life's major and minor financial decisions.

These two books alone, if read by every 17 year old before they graduated from high school, would ensure there would never be any financial problems ever again. It is the financial and economic education everybody keeps regretting they don't have, and desperately wished they had 10, 20, 30 even 40 years ago.

However, while for some of us it may be too late, that doesn't mean we don't owe it to our youth to do what we can to make their lives better. Yes, I do get a commission on every sale of the book. Yes, I am primarily doing this to enrich myself. But a close second is the good these books will do for young people (even middle aged people) across the country.

Ergo, I humbly ask that if you are looking to buy a graduation gift for an upcoming graduate that you consider these two books or refer them to a friend or a loved one.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Third, sports are ultimately irrelevant. I always love watching people watch the Olympics because it ultimately boils down to;

Who can throw the sphere the furthest.
Who can twirl the prettiest on the rink.
Who can do the most flippy-things in the air.None of it…Cures cancer
Boosts economic growth
Promotes freedom and libertyAlas, this is why everybody knows who got traded to New York, but doesn’t know what the national debt is as a percent of GDP.

Originally I wanted to put together a rather lengthy and detailed economic analysis of Obama's performance thus far against other presidencies. The only problem was that this would take a lot of hard work and effort and if there's anything I learned in my 20's it is that hard work and effort rarely pays off. Ergo, I decided to do more of a series where we take one individual economic statistic at a time and compare the Affirmative Action President against the performance of other, obviously lesser, presidents.

Before we do this, however, I should point out that such comparisons are actually somewhat flawed in that chalking up the performance of the entire economy to one man and his affiliate political party is foolish. It is really the policies that are implemented by congress, the president, not to mention the actions of the American people that ultimately determine the economic success and growth of a nation.

For example both Reagan and Obama inherited outlandishly bad recessions.

Bill Clinton, though a democrat, implemented more conservative policies than Bush Jr because of a Republican congress.

Therefore, remember to take these statistics with a pinch of salt. Be intellectually honest and realize it is the overall policies and financial intelligence of the American public that determines our economic success. However, if at anytime you get into a presidential performance debate with a leftist about "Oh yeah! Well Bush caused AIDS and eats baby kittens!" then by all means feel free to use these statistics.

Today's statistic is unemployment.

Though I could have gone back longer, I didn't feel the need because unemployment pre-Carter was actually not that bad (well, actually it was under Ford, but I don't want too convoluted of a graph). Regardless, since the data series has been kept since 1948, Obama, thus far, has the worst unemployment average out of all of our presidents. In all fairness, like Reagan, he inherited a crippling recession that largely wasn't his fault, however, unlike Reagan, his recovery...well...isn't a recovery. Reagan was able to get unemployment reduced faster than Obama and it was through job creation, not people leaving the labor force, that did it (as GDP figures when we visit it will show).

So far, based on the NUMBERS (I know, those damn factual mathy statisticy things!) the left's great hope is dead last place.

I'm sure when we look at GDP, though, things will turn around for America's first golf-like handicapped presidency.

What are the women's studies departments supposed to do if there's no "rape epidemic" on campus to cajole money out of the state and university coffers to help employ unemployable women's studies majors fight the non-existent rape epidemic?

By gum, they'd have to get real jobs requiring real effort and work! And we all know that is what truly scares them.

Graduation for all the high school kiddies is coming up and consequently I'm starting a new advertising campaign for "Worthless." Obviously I intend on profiting from this, but I want to get as many copies of Worthless into the hands of high school graduates as possible as it is BEFORE they attend college that the book can do the most good.

Naturally, those of you who wanted to purchase Worthless already have, but if you would be so kind to forward this on social media or refer Worthless to a young upcoming graduate I (and their future 30 something selves) would greatly appreciate it.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Hoping Aurini and Forney don't drink too much before we hike in 92 degree weather
How the Captain just wants a small trailer to live in during winter in Arizona...with his mistress
"Troll of the Weak!"
There is no merit unto college itself
Your mind can't grow when arguing with a leftist
Americans, especially college students, are stupid enough to swallow whole "Privilege 101"

Set aside, if you will, the valid and legitimate criticisms of labor force participation and people leaving the labor market. I am merely updating arguably my favorite chart - housing starts vs. unemployment.

I happened upon this chart quite some time ago and noticed that housing stats lead unemployment figures anywhere from 6-18 months. The logic being that housing triggers not just construction hiring, but effects nearly every other industry as a "house" virtually houses products from every other industry. Ergo when housing recovers so too (generally) does employment in every other sector.

Empirically, this relationship is holding, but as mentioned before a large part of the drop in unemployment has been by people leaving the labor force. I may someday compare labor force participation vs. housing starts to see how this compares (though I fear demographic trends - women entering the work force, baby boomers retiring - may mask any relationship)

A short video that I wanted to put together explain true "genius" in the financial services industry is really more of a function of daring to have independent thought rather than any sort of inherent "financial genius."

No, you know why? Because the Maths are hard. The Statistics are difficult. And young Sally like many people posing as journalists are too lazy to do any research. Better to just talk about feelings and name toss and write a crappy and shittacular article that will lead some naive, equally math imparied soul to part with $100,000 to get a worthless piece of paper.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

In anticipation of increasing minimum wages, McDonalds hires....7,000 touch screen tablets. Ahhh, it sure does feel good when people who are already destitute and voted for Obama are going to suffer even more.

We once again find that our path comes across this dead horse and thus, let us flog it one more pointless time.

As you know trillions of baby boomer dollars have been flooding the stock market since the advent of 401k-esque retirement plans. Mindless lemmings, making their monthly contributions to their IRA's and 401k's on auto pilot never stop to think about the ramifications of this because...well...that'd mean they'd have to think! And independently no less!

No no, much better to believe "Tee hee! My 401k is up over 30% this year! Tee hee!"

So, as these trillions of dollars chase a limited number of stocks, the price of said stocks go up and beyond what the underlying profits warrant. And thus the PE ratio is driven to highs that are approaching the 1929 stock market bubble, indicating that the stock market is overvalued by 67% (source Robert Shiller).

Now, I know, I know. We all love it when stock prices go up because "Obama." We think we're rich and that it's good when stock prices go up.

Well, that's if you already own stock. But if you're like most Americans, especially younger ones, you don't own any stock. All this means is that you get to pay 67% more than what historically has been the "mean price" of stocks.

So ask yourself would you like to pay:

$5.50 for a gallon of gas?
$700 for the new XBox One?
$10 for a Big Mac?
$325,000 for a law school?

And realize that it's the same proposition if you were to invest in the stock market today.

AVFM is holding a conference in Detroit this summer - The International Conference on Men's Issues. I will unlikely be attending, but I did want to point this out for some of my younger or newer readers who may have happened on The Manosphere, Alt-Rightsphere, etc., and are intimidated by the sheer preponderance of information out there.

It costs $260 and while a chunk of change you are likely to earn that back in saved labor as the speakers will be speaking directly about various issues allowing you to more quickly digest everything that is out there and get a birds eye view of what's going on. Also the entertainment value alone of Karen Straughan and Stefan Molyneux will likely provide a guffaw or two.

Consider attending if you're finishing up school for the year, looking for a road trip, or are in desperate need to talk with some like-minded people.

In my economics class I tested my students' ability to not just regurgitate what I told them, but see if they can take what I taught them and start drawing logical economic conclusions. To do this I asked one rather difficult question:

Why are stock prices going up faster than earnings?

It is a difficult question, but of the many guesses I get, the most pluralistic one is:

"greed."

I have to temper my immediate ire and remind myself of the innocence of that answer. Nearly nobody has adequate education in economics, and nearly everybody has misinformation and propaganda fed to them by state schools.

However, the prevalence of that answer only indicates just how widespread leftist indoctrination has become and it's time to explain greed as a means to undo this political brainwashing.

Understand there is no such thing as greed. There is only theft.

In other words the only REAL form of greed is when somebody steals something that is not theirs. That act - stealing - is the only behavior that can truly be considered greed.

What the left has managed to do is change the meaning of the word "greed" to mean "not sharing enough of your wealth, income, profits, resources or time with other people." The problem is "well, how much is enough so that the person is no longer considered 'greedy'?"

This puts us on a slippery slope, and was done so quite intentionally by the left. Because since there is no objective standard as to what is "enough" this leaves it up to the interpretation of the person accusing somebody of being greedy. And no doubt, almost always this accuser is

a leftist,

and the answer to "how much is enough" is always

"more."

The problem is this cowardly tactic by the left does not adhere to reality in two ways:

Morally and mathematically.

Morally, nobody has to share jack with anybody else. The reason is simple - that person gave up part of their precious and finite life to get what wealth and income they have. Ergo, when you are asking somebody to "share" you are literally saying, "become my slave for part of your life so that you may work up the money and wealth to give to me."

Doesn't matter if that person earned a trillion dollars.
Doesn't matter if that person uses diamond spoons.
Doesn't matter if that person has 30 mansions.

It accusing somebody of being greedy, and thereby implying they should share, you are in PLAIN ENGLISH telling them to be your slave, albeit for a limited time.

The second way the accusation of greedy doesn't work (from a leftist standpoint) is the "how much is enough" component. Not one leftist, NOT ONE can answer the simple question:

"How much is enough?"

When it comes to the public schools, there is never enough money.
When it comes to welfare, the poor, and the elderly, there is never enough.
When it comes to the children or global warmer, there is never enough.

The reason why is that leftists are by their nature lazy and never sit down to calculate how much money would be necessary to finance their demands. They are emotionally driven, parasitically even, to constantly demand more and more and more and more and more (matter of fact I intend on doing a little research project where I am going to contact various political parties and ask them what their economic plan is, namely what their goals are and what are their financial plans to attain said goals - I already know NONE of them, Republicans included, will have said plans). It doesn't occur to them that there may be limited funds, and even though we're already spending around 40% GDP, I do not doubt for a second that if asked they would demand 2.5x's or more than what is currently being spent.

The larger point is that the accusation of "greed" is the perfect weapon for leftists because it provides a reason to take other people's money and allows them to take as much as they can as there is no objective standard or adherence to reality governing what is "enough." And so as long as somebody just "thinks" said person has too much money (be it a kid whose brother found $40 or an adult whose neighbor makes $400,000) they can make the accusation of "greed" just as they "racism" on equally flimsy and intellectually dishonest grounds.

The key is to ignore the accusation knowing deep down inside you are neither a thief nor a racist.

Thursday, May 08, 2014

Just how a person spends his leisure reveals a great deal about him. If a
grown man tells me he spends most of his free time watching American Idol and
playing video games, I simply will not consider him the equal of a man
who devotes much time to studying a foreign language, playing the
guitar, or tending to a garden. You can deem me an elitist, but in order
to value some things, we must devalue others: the very notion of
value—inherently comparative—vanishes if we are not willing to make certain distinctions.

The trick is to have a parent that actually loves you enough to prevent you from being brainwashed for 13 years in front of a bunch of boring, brain dead government paid baby sitters in the public schools.

Advocate - Whatever it is you're advocating it's likely taking
my money and then giving it to somebody who cannot speak for or defend
for themselves. Thankfully, you're all too eager and willing to take my
money or non-profit money to be an "advocate" for some group or
another, but understand and understand this well - we all know you don't
give a damn about said group. You're primary concern is that you get
paid for easy work. ie- you use these genuinely disadvantaged people
for your own financial gain. You're despicable.

I
am a fan of your work and I wanted to share with you what knowledge you
have shared with me through your work. I really think this is worth
sharing with you.

After a long day at work (I
write Performa Operation Plans for a telecommunications company) I get a
phone call from a local number. I picked up the phone, thinking it was somebody about a prescription, but instead, I get greeted with this
quiet, 19-year-old female voice.

She wanted to know if I was willing to fork over
money to donate to the Vampire University (I am using a fake and
accurate name for the school) since I am an Alumni from there. I
majored in Bachelor's of Science in Management Information Systems. The
money would go to current students and scholarships for potential
students. This is not the first year I get these calls, but this will be the last year.

I
told her no, I will not. I told her to instead of calling the Allumni
for money to donate to students, I told her to go the president of the
school for those donations. The student loans and grants go to fund the
president's place of residence on school property, living expenses, and
anything else the president wants. I also informed her that the
school's administrators have a huge budget (we are talking hundreds of
thousands of dollars per year) to redecorate their offices. At the
expense of the students.

I told
her that most of her money was not going towards her education. I told
her that amount of adjunct teachers were very high at that school. They
do not get paid as some of the administrators, who do not do real work
in the first place. The school keeps asking for more money, but the
quality she is paying is not going to her as a student.**

I also
informed her that her very expensive tuition is high because there is no
cap for tuition as long as the government is willing to pay whatever
they want for her piece of paper. The school can keep asking for more.

I
finally asked her if she was even getting paid for doing this cold
calling (Vampire University is notorious for using student labor and not
paying them). She told me she was getting paid: at a call center. I
told her "Great, that is fantastic. Do not ever work for free."

After
that I told her to take me off the list and for her to think about the
true cost of what she is getting out of what she is paying for.

**When
I was going to school there part time as a student and working full
time as a warehouse manager at a stevedore company at a port, we stored
brand new AC units for a building under construction at that
university. These AC units were as big as single wide trailers, costing
somewhere in millions of dollar range in total(I do not remember the
exact number, it's been 3 years or so since I have worked there). The
AC units ended up going on top of a 5 story building. The building is
for Interdisciplinary Science... which holds classes for majors like
"Interdisciplinary Social Studies". AKA: Bachelor of Arts degrees in
Gerontology, Humanities, Latino Studies, etc. You know "non productive"
courses the kiddies love.

Keep spreading the good word, sir. I appreciate the work that you do.

Thank you,C

Our Agent in the Field highlights something I've thought about and is going to be a HUGE problem in the future for universities and colleges that raped their students for their tuition money:

Who in their right mind is ever going to contribute to their alma mater?

You see, in the past maybe college was a fond memory, full of friends, socializing, and fun times. But it was also likely more rigorous, challenging, and productive. Professors were not washed up losers who could not hack it in life, but people with real world experience that decided to share their wisdom. Also pricing was a "tad" cheaper back then, to the point a degree was a positive rate of return. And finally, said degree ended up landing those people better jobs and careers, giving them said extra income to contribute to their fond alma mater.

But not today's kids and certainly not my generation.

I know personally I would NEVER give the U of MN a penny. I don't know one person who actually enjoyed their college experience there. And the lies and propaganda that was fed to me and my fellow 50,000 students during the 90's was unforgivable. Like most other educational institutions, it was a place of evil.

So when it comes to donation drives and ginning up the ole graduates from Whatsomatta U to donate to their college, I see today, as well as into the future, students doing precise what our Agent in the Field did and telling them to pound sand.

This presents a huge financial risk to the futures of nearly every university. Without endowments and donations, what precisely are they going to do to make up for the loss of funding.

Well lieutenants, economists, agents in the field, and others, you know precisely what they're going to do:

Demand a bail out and government money.

And when they do, it will at least be an admission as the evil they truly are.

I was driving the motorcycle yesterday as it was a reasonably tolerable day to go riding. Saw an SUV infront of me driving slowly and if you know anything about SUV's as a motorcyclist you know they're more dangerous than deer as they're usually piloted by a inattentive soccer mom texting on her phone. Ensuring I gave her a wide berth, I couldn't help but notice her vanity plates saying "4CHOICE" with her requisite "Obama" bumper sticker.

Upon seeing this I had to confirm my theory that leftists are usually uglier and sure enough as I carefully passed the driver side of the SUV I saw a frumpy, elderly lady who was not smiling (leftists rarely smile). I speed off, now with the SUV danger behind me, but couldn't help but think about how sad a person would have to be to have vanity plates that say "4CHOICE."

Understand most vanity plates are an exercise of wit or cleverness. Something that typically brings about humor or a guffaw. Perhaps even personal, but usually an uplifting statement. But to have a plate that yells to the world:"The thing I value about myself the most, the number one thing I want you to know about me, what my prides of prides is based on, is that I'm pro-choice in the abortion debate."

in English translates into:

"I really have no meaning in my life."

The reason is very simple. Believing in something, be it a religion, an ideology, global warming, or what have you takes no effort, builds no character, and is not an accomplishment. It's perfectly fine to believe in something, but when you define yourself by a zero-calorie exercise such as "belief" then it's almost a surefire guarantee you haven't done anything of noteworthiness, significance, or accomplishment in your life. Instead of taking on tasks, engaging in a rigorous endeavor, you instead subconsciously say,"WHOA!!!! Do WHAT with my life??? Work hard? Study hard? Take the harder path!!??? Are you kidding me!?? I'm just going to put going green and "COEXIST" bumper stickers on my car and claim I'm doing something instead!"

In short you take an effortless act (belief) and substitute it in for actual accomplishment.

Understand I am pro-choice myself. I find abortion to be a lesser of two evils when a potential child is faced with a life where his/her parents never really wanted them, couldn't afford them, or both, vs. never coming into that miserable existence in the first place. Cold, callous, calculating, yes, but that's my belief.

However, at no point in time did I ever CHEER ON abortion. It's not like it's a GREAT thing. It's a horrible thing, something I'm sure most women who had one did not wake up in the morning and say "YEAAAAAHHHH!!!! ABORTION TIME!"

But some people, like the lady linked above, do. Some people are so valueless, such worthless people, they take something as horrible as abortion and pride themselves off of it because...well...what else in their lives can they point to as achievement or accomplishment?

Thankfully these people can be easily avoided as their insecure egos force them to scream to the world about their beliefs. It may not be as clear as a political vanity plate, but you've no doubt seen cars wallpapered with political bumper stickers (of both the leftist and right wing variety). You've no doubt heard somebody say, "environmentalism is very important to me." You've no doubt met several people that "found Jesus." And you've no doubt found somebody within the first 5 seconds of introduction tell you they're a vegetarian.

Whatever variant, all of these are easy beliefs one can merely "claim" which they will no doubt lord over you, even arrogantly use to lecture and berate you. But understand all it is, is a very thin and ineffective veil poorly hiding the fact the person has no core, has no worth, and is wasting their one and precious life they've been given on this planet.Enjoy the decline!

While I highlighted Naropa for being the perfect leftwing, self-blowing school that offered the most concentrated group of worthless degrees, understand that there is a correlation between mentally deficient and weak people and worthless masters programs. And like strippers, you can almost bet a worthless degree will lead to problems in the future.

I've been meaning to poll economists about whether they have children and if my theory is correct, they probably have some of the lowest birthrates....well...adjusting for our typically poor physical attractiveness I mean ;)

Monday, May 05, 2014

Hollywood lies to you....There will
be no handsome millionaire willing to marry you when you’re 33 and ready
to settle down. Once you’re married, adultery is no light, breezy
thing. You probably won’t live in that huge home with a pool and a maid
to do the cleaning. Your “high-powered” career will mostly likely
consist of tedious paperwork in a claustrophobic office cubicle as you
daily work through messy office politics and cope with a few difficult
colleagues, while worrying about all those unfinished tasks at home. All
too often, especially if you made poor choices about what to study in
college, you will not get your dream career. You might actually end up
being the maid or the nanny for another woman, doing the same
housework/childcare in a stranger’s home that feminists always told you
was sneer-worthy work to do in your own home. Your debt load will scare
you. Your loneliness could shatter you. Men will come and go as they use
you for their sexual pleasure and you will pretend to feel “empowered”
by letting them do so.

Laugh as you might, but in my idiotic and naive youth I fancied myself quite the poet. This was brought about in part because of advice from my father (he said girls like stupid poems) and my observation that a poem was a convenient vehicle to hit on a girl while also displaying wit and cleverness.

Just one problem.

Poems rarely worked and were the epitome of beta.

Sure poems enthrall the girl you're already dating, but as a tool for "game" or attracting a girl, poems quickly showed their use - useless.

Slowly, but surely, my poetry writing met the same fate as a gal bladder becoming an present, but obsolete, unnecessary and never used tool.

Still, since that time roughly 15 years ago, there was the rare occasion a girl would suit my fancy, so much so I would be "inspired" to do something creative. Poetry was just one thing, but there were other forms my creativity would eek out. Crafty ways to ask her out, line up unique activities for a date, or just be inspired to write the most charismatic of e-mails. I didn't know it at the time, but what was happening was what I would later find out to be called the "muse effect." A muse being a woman and her effect to inspire men to be creative and productive.

At first hearing about it I dismissed this "muse" effect, but with wisdom and hindsight, it's as obvious as day that there is indeed a muse effect. Matter of fact, it's so obvious the entirety of western civilization (and any civilization) was built off of it. Mens' desire to procreate with women they are attracted to is just a powerful a force as gravity in this universe and all of our advances in all of the different fields as an indirect and inspired means to nail chicks is proof of it.

A sad thing, though, happened one time.

After countless dates with countless pains in the asses manifesting themselves as American women, my system was just completely worn down. So much so (and I remember this quite clearly) I walked into a restaurant one time and there before my very eyes was the epitome of "my type of gal."

My lizard brain immediately went into default mode and I sent out to approach her. Fully intending to spew some charming charismatic bullshit, I had not one iota of worry as I desperately wanted this woman so. But as the neurons fired and electro-chemical pulses flowed and I was confident in my stride, I remembered, quite clearly, walking towards her with the full intention of asking her out, something abruptly slapped me across my face and stopped me dead in my tracks;

My empirically-experienced frontal lobes said,

"Wait, what's the point?"

I remember the restaurant, and I remember the exact location I stopped. And I remember leaning against the wall there for a solid 3 minutes debating with myself whether or not I should even approach the girl.

What ended up happening was almost precisely what happens when you try to start a car with a dying battery.

The engine just couldn't turn over.

I just could not get excited about what was in front of me.

I sat there running two concurrent debates in my mind. The now-dying debate as to whether I should even bother approaching her versus the now more-recent discovery that I was not incentivized to approach what (as to up to that point in my mind) was the "perfect girl." Taking inventory, I realized that my frontal lobes had vetoed my lizard brain so much so that while there was the natural and impulsive "wooza!" experience, it quickly faded into a simple, but 100% truthful and empirical excuse:

"I'm too damn tired."

Naturally, this accidental, nay, biologically forced decision ended up being the right one. I decided instead of pursuing her to just sit and observe her. And so, over the course of a year, patronizing this restaurant/bar I learned several important things.

One, she was dating a loser whose only form of transportation was a peddle-bike. He had tats, a dumbass haircut, worked as waiter and was about 33. I was just this "loser" compared to him - 30, owned two cars, rental property, taught dance on the side and was still working in banking.

Two, bar her physique, she was no catch herself. Also a waitress, but also an "aspiring artist" painting "murals" at people's houses (her art work went nowhere).

And three, after getting to know her on a platonic level, I learned about how hard it was for her to make rent and pay for groceries, and...well...to occasionally lend her boyfriend money.

In the end I realized what happened. My muse machine was broken. No more could the mere glance of a woman prompt me to work harder, be more creative, or produce more GDP. If anything, the more attractive a girl, the more my cynical and empirical mind would distrust her. And while this epiphany helped me 10 years ago, it isn't until now I realized the severity and critical ramifications "broken muse machines" present to our economy.

The blatant truth is men are the true innovators, shakers, and makers of this or any other economy. Certainly there are some outstandingly productive women, but by and large nearly 100% of all economic production and creativity come from men. And the primary motivating factor for men is the beauty of women.

But what if women in this (or any other) society become so disagreeable their repugnance actually overrides and kills mens' biology? It destroys their "muse machines?"

Call it what you may, you have an army of men who are just not incentivzied or mused any more. And you can't really blame them. Look at what is supposed to "inspire" them.

I always love how "low t" and "erectile dysfunction" is presented as a "disease" or problem men have. When in reality you damn well know the number one cause of erectile dysfunction is a fat, unattractive wife. Throw in divorce, lippy attitude, socialist voting preferences, and genuine psychological problems, modern day American women are the anti-muse that are shutting down the engine of economic growth. Nuclear bombs dropped from mother Russia herself could not be as devastating to the US economy and society as the unfeminine, loud, noxious, obese and uninspiring women that roam the landscape today.

I mean, seriously, wow, ANOTHER overweight, short hair, tatted up, democrat-voting sociology undergrad pursuing her masters in social work with a cat that reads Cosmo and thinks The Daily Show is funny who thinks she's "unique" and "independent" while living off of daddy's credit card?

Wow, let me fire up the ole creative juices and go paint the fucking Sistine Chapel! I need me some of that all-too-common hairy-armpit bitchy government worker play!

The truth is men have lost what has traditionally inspired them to be the awesome, creation and production machines we were. And though it took a while, after 40 years of feminist propaganda and turning women into men, they were successful. Women in the west are so homely, so physically unattractive, and (I would say above all else) COOKIE CUTTER COMMON they couldn't inspire a bear to shit in the woods.

Naturally, women will be appalled and criticize such statements. But when China cuts off the credit line or the Fed's QE-hyperinflation jig is up, the "uninspiring, not unique, not terribly intelligent, make work government worker, I'm an independent, worthless-degreed female that really offers nothing to society" bubble will burst and the importance of feminine beauty and genuine production will become painfully clear.

_________________________

Aaron Clarey is a meanie, jerk, poopey head that lives in his mother's basement and can't get laid. He's a professional asshole and specializes in pointing out the truth and not giving a fuck about what people think because...well, how do you argue against truth? You can buy his awesome books here and hire him for his "asshole consulting services" which every Idiocracy dipshit in America is in desperate need of.

Sunday, May 04, 2014

Cargo Cult, if you don't know what it is, is a phenomenon that occurred post WWII where several uncivilized, native cultures saw their South Pacific invaded by the US (and Japanese) forces who in turn would airdrop and supply these petty but militarily vital islands with supplies. Unaware of what Western Civilization had discovered in terms of flight, physics, chemistry, etc., they thought that the precious cargo was merely a consequence of having things that looked like planes around. Naively, they built plane replicas out of bamboo and other local material in the hopes that would bring the bounty of cargo a superior culture created.

Naturally it did not work.

And neither will Cargo Cult Manospherism.

I know of the rifts and tiffs that have occurred in the past month of the Manosphere. Naturally, there will be disagreements and that is largely why I stay out of them. It's like Lithuania and Latvia arguing over linguistic differences while the USSR is about to invade both. However, at the core of these arguments is something I believe is legitimate and real and needs to be addressed. And that is poseurs vs. real men.

I understand just what an unfair, unforgivable, and disgusting amount of lies and propaganda has been fed to men.

I understand how most western men have had their birthright stolen from them from socialism and feminism.

And I am completely sympathetic to the Herculean task every western man must take on in terms of accepting this harsh reality, reprogramming themselves, changing their life goals, and making the best of what remnant of life they have in an increasingly hostile environment.

I get it.

But in the end, your righteous and well deserved anger HAS TO progress into acceptance and becoming a real man and saying, "OK, what can we feasibly, realistically, and most efficiently do about it? What is the best possible outcome of this newly-brought-to-my-attention situation?"

It is here the men separate from the boys and we have genuine Manospherians versus Cargo Cult Manospherism.

The real men accept reality of life and move on. Yes, there is some element of the 6 stages of grief, but they get over it, accept it and move on. They start working out instead of trying to further refine their "nice guy personality." They sacrifice their diet, eating what they need to, not what they'd like. They work harder at their jobs, while at the same time start a company on the side. They stop sitting in front of the TV, they put down the video game controller, they stop doing what has been easy, and they take this new-found knowledge, work hard, sacrifice, and achieve something of importance, relevance and worth.

The Cargo Cult, however, finds value, definition, and meaning in the Manosphere itself, never taking the important lessons it's uncovered and applying said lessons to improve their lives. That takes took much effort.

Lift heavy metal objects in a mind-numbing state to increase muscle mass?

That's too boring.

Sacrifice my free time to lay the groundwork for a future company that will grant me true freedom and success in the future?

That's too hard.

Go up to multiple girls and get shot down so you develop a tough skin as well as aptitude to approach women?

My feelings might get hurt.

No, it's much better, much easier, and much too tempting to merely to cheer on what is being said on the internet, living vicariously through a shocking few real men, and say,

"YEAH!! YEAH!!!! WOMEN SUCK!!!!"

"YEAH!!! YEAH!!! THAT'S HOW I GET GIRLS!!!!"

"YEAH!!! YEAH!!! THAT'S HOW I"D TELL MY BOSS TO FUCK OFF!!!!!"

In the end, Cargo Cult Manospherism is nothing more than Monday morning quarter-backing. It's keyboard jockeying. It's criticizing military moves in a war you're comfortably watching from your home, 4,000 miles away on CNN. It's just being a professor or academian studying the industry that would never employ you.

Another Manosphere author said it best (and I don't remember who so could somebody please let me know so I may give due credit),

"The Manosphere is not a church, it's a gym."

Or as I like to say,

"The Manosphere is a trade school, not a university."

And that is the truth.

This is not some religion you follow to have your sins forgiven.
This is not some therapist's office where you talk about your feelings and they say it's your parents' fault.
And this is not some pontificating, bloviating Ivy Tower hiring aging hippie baby boomers to spew leftist fucktarded rubbish.

This is a place where misled, disadvantaged, and otherwise crippled men come to find explanation, sanity, clarity, and truth, but above all else the tools needed to make the best of what remains of their remnant sole life on this planet.

You can sit behind a keyboard and be a bloviating professor or get your asses shot down, doing the hard work like the rest of us like real soldiers:

One of the more important epiphanies I had was that age doesn't matter when it comes to leadership and capabilities. Sure, you would think older people are wiser, but as I've aged I realized that in fact, no, they're just older. They are just as dumb and incompetent as people half their age.

While it took some daring and bravado to make this epiphany when I was 30, it is only reinforced as it is now my generation that is approaching 40 and will be viewed by today's 20 somethings as the "wise elders who have their act together." The modern day 20 something does not know what I know and does not see what I see in my 4 decades old peers - that they're the same idiots and morons they were back in the 90's when they were in their 20's. They did not mature, they just got older, and really have no clue what they're doing.

But if we were to extrapolate this trend, one where generations don't mature, never grow up, and never change, just merely get older, the country is in for a world of hurt. For while I can't believe people in my generation are heading up companies, working their way up the corporate ladders, or are educators and teachers in our schools, what's coming down the pipe is scary - a mentally infected or diseased generation.

When I say "infected" or "diseased" I mean I look at the kids today, especially of college age, and realize they have a genuine mental condition. We can all laugh and mock them citing examples of entitlement, weakness, and idiocy, highlighting stories where they demand free education or have their parents attend a job interview with them or Pajama Boy's latest antics, but these are merely the symptoms of a much larger and threatening sickness. One where nearly an entire generation is incapable of understanding other people's rights, freedom, and property.

If you look at college students and 20 somethings today an unacceptable number of them lack the mental ability to respect the rights and freedoms of others. There was the student journalist that wanted to ban conservative opinions on campus (I forget the name and the school). There was Donglegate where Adria Richards thought it was her domain to get two guys fired, which is only one of the increasing instances of Mozillaing. And there's more than one instance where some idiot adult child will claim we need to ban conservative talk radio.

This trend, however, is not so scary because of what these people are doing, but because they are unconsciously doing it. They are unconscious of what they are saying. And they are unable to fully and thoroughly think through the consequences of advocating such things. What's worse, however, is the disease is further complicated and entrenched in the minds of young people by a historic amount of brainwashing and pampering. Be it the trillions of dollars in debt accrued to prevent said people from paying the full price of their socialist utopia, the 20 years of brainwashing they received from K-college, or society and their parents bending over backwards to kiss their asses, all of this shields these kids from the harsh and necessary realities of life. This not only results in adults who are incapable of supporting themselves, completely clueless about how the real world economy works, but worse it convinces them they are entitled to everything in life. This lays the ground work for what is arguably the most despicable aspect of this mental condition - victimhood.

You combine this altogether and what you have is a group of people who:

1. Are not able to support themselves
2. Lack the mental ability to understand the sovereignty and freedom of other people and
3. Therefore lack the ability to protect freedom while voting
4. Are trained to find insult in everything and view themselves only as a victim
5. Are not capable of logical and intellectually honest thought
6. Who are instead ruled by emotions and self-pity
7. and are therefore uncurable and beyond reason.

Add to that, that generations really never grow up, just get old, and you can see why this sickness is such a threat.

People infected with this disease will act and vote in a way that will destroy the liberty and freedom Western Civilization spent the last 2,500 years trying to build. You may say, "well, that's why we have the Constitution. That's why we have the courts" or "that'll never happen." But what if these people were to become the justices? What if they were to become the politicians and leaders of this country? A piece of paper or the foresight of our founding fathers to have the division of powers cannot stop an entire population that is mentally sick and impaired. And instances such as Brendan Eich and Dartmouth caving to the demands of a sick person, already shows you the lack of US institutions to stop and fight this sickness.

What will "end" this sickness, however, will be an economic collapse wherein there is no more government money to keep these people supported in their current environment. Life-long college students come professors will no longer have a university to go and teach at. The various "professional activists" will have to worry about clean water instead of saving the whales. And professional victims will have more pressing matters like starvation than finding fake umbrage at a Cinco De Mayo fundraiser. Unfortunately, such a collapse can be staved off a long time with the fed's constant printing of money and the US' relative position of being the "least sucky economy" in the world, and this will continue to provide the environment these diseased people thrive in. Ergo, not only are they not going away, they're going to increase as the 20 somethings of today become the 40 somethings of tomorrow and by default infiltrate our various institutions.

There's not much to do but what we're doing now. Pointing it out and trying to bring shame to these people. Alas, their brainwashing is so complete, their sense of victimhood so engrained, and their sense of entitlement so strong, it is doubtful anything will ever get through to these liberal zombies.

A common comment I receive on my youtube channel is that, among other things, I live in my "mommy's basement." Naturally a comment from people I've offended the truth pisses off. The expected knee-jerk reaction to being offended is not to critically think through or digest why what some random guy on the internet said causes such discomfort, but instead abandon the entire discussion being had and go personal.

The reason I love this counter-punch is because not only is it common, and not only is it part of a prepackaged suite of knee-jerkism ("can't get laid" "small penis" etc.) it's because it belies that the person accusing you of living in mommy's basement has lost the argument.

It's done.

It's over.

You've won, that person lost, and the reasons are multi-fold.

One, do you REALLY live in mommy's basement?

Of all the bloggers, commenters, podcasters, etc., I know none of them live in their "mommy's basement" let alone receive a STIPEND or subsidy from their parents or government like most "mommy's basement accusers" do. Are there basement dwelling trolls who make trolling comments?

Yes.

But what should concern most people who resort to this argument is the fact that there are so many self-supporting men who are merely voicing their legitimate opinion. And accusing them of "living in mommy's basement" is...well...pat-on-the-head-worthy "cute." It's not true, so the accusation rings hallow, and an eye roll ensues.

Second, the "mommy's basement" is a CLASSIC liberal debating technique of changing the topic. If the current debate or discussion at hand is untenable a hypocrite will ALWAYS go personal because they know deep down inside they're wrong and their adversary is right. The real issue is whether you have the self-control not to fall for this ruse, take personal affront, and then go on defending how you "don't live in your mommy's basement." Maintain control of the debate, ignore these personal sleights, and continue your assault.

Finally, I'm not a big "psychology" guy and don't really believe in this "projection" kind of thing younger generations resort to as a means to debate. But I am a big believer in "deflection." Realize when somebody is so desperate, so hypocritical, and above all else, exposed for their self-serving and immoral beliefs, their little lizard-brain goes into full defense mode and tries to cover up their true intention of basically stealing resources from other people. However, since they have no legitimate moral or logical argument, they need to resort to name calling. As previously mentioned, this is merely a ruse and proof you've won the debate, but I wanted to point out just how cowardly, pathetic, and "loserish" it is of the person that has to resort to this tactic.

In the end, the true "loser" is not the guy (or gal) accused of living in "mommy's basement." It's the person doing the accusing. They're typically a spoiled suburbanite brat that had everything handed to her (or him), never had to support themselves, and never had enough adversity in life to challenge them and forge them into a real, interesting, and self-supporting adult. And so when reality smashes their fragile idealistic view of the world in the form of a genuinely independent person, speaking real truths, their tantrums, and any accusations of living with mommy, can largely be dismissed.